Known for his hyper-realistic sculptures that question our perception of everyday life, Tony Matelli explores here the aesthetics of the accident, a reflection on life’s little unforeseen events that we often try to correct but which could just as easily be welcomed as fragments of accidental beauty.

Matelli has established himself on the international art scene through his distinctive sculptural work, in which humour, absurdity and unsettling realism combine to challenge the viewer’s expectations. When he began his career, Tony used a stylised sculptural language. Over time, however, his desire to strip his work of all artifice has led him to adopt a more neutral style, where the main aim is to create an immediate connection between the work and the viewer. In his sculptures, he aims to erase all mediation between the object represented and the viewer, hoping that the latter will perceive the object for what it is, without any filter.

The “Yesterday I” buckle plays with the boundaries between art and reality by inlaying used chewing gum, reproduced in brass and enhanced with delicate enamels. This surprising buckle takes all the codes of a precious jewel but wants to divert them to make us think about the complexity and richness of what we could easily overlook or reject.

Known for his hyper-realistic sculptures that question our perception of everyday life, Tony Matelli explores here the aesthetics of the accident, a reflection on life’s little unforeseen events that we often try to correct but which could just as easily be welcomed as fragments of accidental beauty.

Matelli has established himself on the international art scene through his distinctive sculptural work, in which humour, absurdity and unsettling realism combine to challenge the viewer’s expectations. When he began his career, Tony used a stylised sculptural language. Over time, however, his desire to strip his work of all artifice has led him to adopt a more neutral style, where the main aim is to create an immediate connection between the work and the viewer. In his sculptures, he aims to erase all mediation between the object represented and the viewer, hoping that the latter will perceive the object for what it is, without any filter.

The “Yesterday I” buckle plays with the boundaries between art and reality by inlaying used chewing gum, reproduced in brass and enhanced with delicate enamels. This surprising buckle takes all the codes of a precious jewel but wants to divert them to make us think about the complexity and richness of what we could easily overlook or reject.